4 Germans, 3 Days and a Whole Lot of Fun

So here I am, I finally made it to Adelaide. Before I honestly wasn't having the greatest time in OZ. I don't know if it is the people or the place or probably both, but being here just feels right. (Maybe its because my mom was born here?)
I never would have guessed that the ride to Adelaide would have brought me such amazing people. I never would have thought that joining a rideshare would turn out to be the greatest thing that happened to me, here in Aussie.

After a lovely evening with Claire and the saddest part of my trip, (saying goodbye to her) I started my journey west to Adelaide. And I started with Maccas (McDonald's), where I met two German girls and two German boys (gotten pretty use to the fact that almost all the internationals I met over here are German). We all climbed in the station wagon and headed for the Great Ocean Road.
"Just cry when you want to see something or have me stop" Julien said. I got to start out as DJ and played them some reggae music. But once Macklemore came on we all started singing. I got to teach them some English slang and they loved asking what certain words and phrases meant. In return they taught me my favorite German word to say, klettverschluss (it means Velcro). They would say things that made me laugh like; 'lets make party' or refer to their cell phones as 'handys'. On our first night we stayed in a hostel right on the beach in Port Campbell and we had the whole place to ourselves, so naturally we 'made big party'. Haha. I made party a little too big (I will never drink goon again, but I'm a backpacker and that will be hard as it is the only thing we can afford). I can't thank them all enough for helping me out so much that night, but it was like Birk said, "we are traveling together, of course we will be looking out for each other too, it's just what you do". Seriously, thanks guys for holding my hand. The next morning we continued down the GOR all a little tired (me especially). We crossed the Victorian border and ended that day in Mt Gambier, finally to South Australia! A new state and a new time zone. We stayed in an old prison that night and again, had the whole place to ourselves. The next morning we woke up to pouring rain. Joy, thanks again OZ for the great weather.

We drove for about five straight hours that day. Julien and I split the drive. It was a fairly boring drive. No let me rephrase that. It was not very beautiful or fun to drive that road, straight roads and we wouldn't see another car for hours. But inside the car was very fun. Inside that car was always fun. I have grown to enjoy German music, even if I can't understand it. We arrived in Adelaide
that night and booked into another hostel. We went out to dinner that night because none of us felt up to cooking after the long trip. And by 'out' I mean to Dominos pizza, welcome to the life of a backpacker. Convientient that it was a Tuesday night because everything was cheaper, yay for budget eating! Impressed that I could find gluten free pizza there. We went to a park that night with our boxes of pizza and we met some more Germans that would continue on with Julien to Carins the next day. After that we went back to out hostel tired as hell but not before stopping at a bottle shop for one last box of goon (not for me though). We stayed up all night talking and playing games.

Saying goodbye to the guys was sad. I will miss them very much, I know it was only three days but they felt like family to me. I am actually still with the girls, can't bring myself to leave them. We spent the day yesterday hiking and looking through pictures of our road trip and laughing at all the good fun we had. God, it's going to be so hard to leave them, I thought. So I guess it's a good thing I am not!

Me being spontaneous:
So tomorrow I was suppose to get on a train to head up to the Barossa valley, to work at a winery, but I really didn't leave this family. And I have always wanted to go I Perth. So when the girls jokingly said I should join them in a road trip to Perth, I looked up and thought, why not? And why not? I love road trips, I love these girls, and a couple more German guys? sounds like fun. So just like that my plans have changed and tomorrow I will become part of a three (maybe four) car caravan trip to Perth that will take us about one week. Let the good times roll on!

Cheers

1400km Road Trip

After a fairly shitty night (to say the least) we woke up to a wonderful rain storm, checked out of our beach hostel and made our way to the Southern Cross Station where we got on a bus that would take us just outside of town, to the Wicked Campers pickup site.

We got there about an hour early (classic me giving myself way more time than I needed), but it was fine because they let us rent the car early. I thought there would be way more paperwork and stuff but they pretty much just photocopied my drivers license, handed me the keys and said 'have a good one'. Really? That's it? Easy as. And off we went.

First stop, gas. With a full tank for $60 and the weather still shitty we decided to do the trip in reverse and started with the Grampains. We made a quick detour and found ourselves back in Glenlyon so Claire could pick up her camera she had left behind, classic. But hey it was on the way and it was good to visit a familiar face, Peter even offered us some food for the road. After about three hours of boring stretches of brown fields we arrived at the southern Grampains, we made a quick stop at the information center where they offered us each a cupa and bikkies (cup of coffee and biscuits, quite European over here, oh and they shorten everything too). As we made our way to Halls Gap we saw over twenty dead kangaroos on the side of the road (it was like the deer back home). The kangaroos will literally jump out at your car whenever they please. You may be thinking wow cute, must have gotten so close, yeah we did but it was more nerve racking and scary. That evening we did some hiking to various lookouts. We had a very cosy night in our small camper, which was more like a car with a bed in the back...not quite what we were expecting but we loved it all the same. The next morning was spent doing some more hiking around the Grampains and some waterfalls before we headed south to the coast.

Time to start the Great Ocean Road. We started in Port Fairy a small coastal town (pretty much the only kind of towns along the GOR). We just kept driving until we found a small turn off by some crazy beautiful cliffs and decided, yeah this is where we will set up camp. We had the place all to ourselves and caught both a sunset and sunrise, looking out over the ocean and cliffs.

Day three: the shipwreck coast, it was a big day. Port Campbell, Loch Ard Gorge, The Twelve Apostles (well there are now only actually seven still standing), Johanna beach, Lavers Hill, and my favorite part of the day, our first wild koala spotting on our way to Cape Otway. Most of these names will likely mean nothing to all of you reading. So let me try to elaborate. The shipwreck coast (stretching from Port Fairy to Lavers Hill) is lined with rugged cliffs and many rock formations created by the southern ocean slowly eating away at the coast. The Otways is a national park covered in tall, wet, ancient rainforests, sandy beaches and not to mention a stretch of eucalyptus trees home to many wild koalas! That night we parked right by the beach (where else?) in Apollo Bay, gotten pretty use to falling asleep to the sound of the ocean.

Day four: Surf coast! For over 200kms it's nothing but perfect surf beaches! And trust me if the weather was better and it wasn't so windy and the waves actually looked worth it, we would have shelled out some cash to hire some boards and wetties (yeah you guessed right, wetsuits) to mess around. But just sitting on Bells Beach was enough for me. Never heard of it? The most famous surf beach in Australia. Only 4kms from Torquay, the birth place of brands like Quicksilver and Rip Curl. Bells Beach is also home to the world's longest running professional surfing event, that's right the Rip Curl Pro Easter Classic, and we missed it by just a couple weeks, damn. At least it was cool to know Kelly Slater was somewhere along the coast that day carving it up. Our trip was coming to an end we still wanted to get a koala hug. So I found a koala sanctuary, Jirrahlinga, that was closing in an hour so we booked it over there.

We were the only ones there so we got a privet tour. We got to be really close and observe the koalas in their natural habitat, they don't actually let people hold the koalas because they are trying to let the koalas live as wild as possible (hmm sound familiar? Elephant Nature Park comes to my mind), but we did get to pet one. So soft. It was hard to get us to leave. I actually stayed and talked to them for quite awhile about volunteering there. And if I ever find my own transportation and accommodation close by, they would love to have me. But I guess all I can do now is spread the word about this wonderful place and the amazing things they are doing for these animals. I think I left part of my heart at Jirrahlinga, those cuddly animals are so cute. Fun facts I learned about koalas; they only eat eucalyptus leaves, there are over six hundred types of trees and they only eat about forty types, picky huh? They rarely, if never drink water, the only water they get is from the leaves...yeah not that much, it would explain why they sleep for almost twenty hours a day and eat for the other four. I hope I get another chance here in OZ to work with koalas.

We spent that night in a small town called Queenscliff before we had to return the car early the next morning. We stopped at a gas station to try and clean all the sand out of the car. Time to freak out about the fact that on the first day I wasn't used to driving on the other side and parked too close to a pole and slightly dinged the passenger door. Oops. I started to freak out that I would have to pay more money than I had. But when we turned the car back in, it was quite like the way we got it. I parked, walked in, handed him the keys and I stood there waiting for him to say something or ask me to fill out more paperwork, but nope just 'how was the trip?' And 'so there is a bus stop right across the street and it will take you back to the Southern Cross Station'. Easy as, pretty sure he was stoned, ha, oh well not my fault he didn't check the car, but the dent wasn't even that bad so I guess I really don't have anything to worry about.
Our trip was a total of 1400kms, way over what we mapped out, but we ended up making detours that were all so worth it. After five days of constant driving it feels good to kick up my feet.

So now we are back in Melbourne, back in St. Kilda in fact. Tomorrow I get a ride over to Adelaide were I will start work on a winery, I'm stoked to get to a new state. Victoria has been great but I'm anxious to move on.

Tonight is also my last night with Claire as she will be returning home sooner than planned. It has been amazing to travel with her, don't think I could have asked for a better travel partner (I mean it). And while yes we have our ups and downs, traveling with her has been wonderful and I really don't know if I have ever been so completely comfortable with expressing my feelings to anyone. I'm going to miss her like crazy but I know when I get home we'll have so many more adventures! Time to celebrate our last night, convenient that our hostel has a bar on the bottom floor and on the roof!

Cheers!

First Two Weeks in OZ

12 days ago we landed in Sydney where we had a small layover and then it was on to Melbourne. The cultural hub of OZ. But by the time we got in it was late and so we just found the closest backpacker and crashed out. The next morning we hopped on a tram and headed to a place called St. Kilda (we had many recommendations to go there, beautiful beaches and penguins and such), but just our luck it was raining that day. What is it with NZ and OZ greeting us with crap weather when it is suppose to be summer time? It's ok. It was still beautiful. We dropped our packs in a hostel in St. Kilda and headed off to explore. We walked down to the beach, where we saw many kite surfers, looked like fun, and for $180 we could join. No thanks I'd rather bungy again. We walked past a creepy looking amusement park and some coffee shops with so much cake in the windows it was tempting (good thing I'm gluten free or I would have had the lot). We found some cute shops and by cute I mean those hippie ones, that smell like sandalwood and have prayer flags hanging all around and most things in the shop are from some Northern Thailand hill tribe and the nice lady hands you cup of homemade chai when you walk in, yeah we spent a long time in that shop. Why rush back outside into the rain? She told us some great places in Melbourne and around OZ. On to find some wifi to see if we can score a work trade close by. We spent a couple more days there riding the trams around to different parts of the city, because unlike NZ, this town was huge, and everything was not walking distance. It wasn't until our last day we figured out that we had to pay for those trams, oops (we never got caught though, so oh well). We went down to the pier one night to watch the sunset, and the penguins coming back from hunting. It was my first wild penguin sighting, and it was very exciting!

After three days we finally found some work so we hopped on a train (yes we paid for this one) and headed to a small town called Glenlyon (pronounced glen-lion). Our host, Peter, met us at the bus stop with his friend Phil (because Peter doesn't drive). They drove us to a small little house with two caravans out front, surrounded by eucalyptus trees and brown hills that were covered in Kangaroos! We could just make out their silhouettes as the sun was going down. I think I am going to like this place, I thought. We settled in that night and met the other WWOOFer, Pablo from Spain, who didn't speak much English, that's ok I'd just practice my Spanish. The next morning Peter showed us around the property. He is only living on one acre but it is not to be underestimated. His farm is all organic and permaculture designed. He is growing over 30 kinds of apple trees, 7 kinds of plums, quince (I didn't know what that was either, it's a pear looking thing, tried one but it wasn't ripe, tart). He also has various berries, veges and avocado trees. As far as animals he has 21 chooks and 14 ducks. I have enjoyed my time with the chooks (even got a couple cuddles in), they love hanging out with people, among other things. They tore apart a marsh snake (yes it's poisonous, but not dangerous apparently...whatever that means), thanks ladies. The work was fairly easy, I harvested and preserved apples everyday. And in between I did some weeding, harvesting of other produce, watering and stacking firewood. There was also a Korean girl, who came a couple days after us. She was the sweetest and cooked us amazing food (Am I allowed to call her cute, when she is 34? Ha I'm taller). She didn't speak English very well either, made for fun conversations. Almost every morning (when I could bring myself to crawl out of our cute caravan) we got up before the sun and walked down to the reserve where we watched kangaroos do their kangaroo thing as the sun rose. Sounds amazing? Yes it was.

So far I am really loving it here in OZ, but to be honest I am missing NZ. I didn't realize how nice it was to be in a country where everything is close together. And you can hitch everywhere, making it easier to get around. The kiwis were so friendly and the beauty of the land exceeded my expectations, and trust me I had high expectations. OZ has a lot to live up to, but it's only been two weeks. We have exactly one more month, I hope it's enough. I have just rented a camper van (I feel so grown up!), and we are now headed off for the Great Ocean Road and the Grampains. The trip is close to 900kms (thats almost 560 miles!) and I get to drive every km of it. Stoked!

Cheers!

Last week in NZ

Well it's down to my last couple hours in this beautiful country. I've got time to kill so be prepared for a long one.

We spent the past week (also our last week) on the sweetest farm out in a town called Little Akaloa on Decanter Bay. Our hosts were the best. Can't thank them enough for taking us in when we really needed it and on such short notice. Marie was so kind and helpful and we had some good laughs. Her five year-old son Felix, as loud as he was, he was one of the cutest little boys I've met. There was an eight year-old girl named Leo who was by far one of the smartest and most cunning eight year-olds I've ever met (She somehow managed to lock her sisters iTouch for over 40 years, yikes!). And then there was Brad, the husband, the dad, and the slave driver. Ha I'm kidding! It was such a wonderful family. They even catered for my gluten free vegetarian diet (I had tofu for almost every meal, but Brad not once cooked it the same way twice, thanks for keeping things interesting!). The work was often hard but it felt good after not working for two weeks. I did some lawn mowing, removing flax (super hard), weeding, harvesting, compost making, transplanting and my personal favorite, shoveling sheep shit for fertilizer (I kid, it was not my favorite, it was probably my least favorite job I have ever been given as a WWOOFer). But after a days work was done we would run to the beach and hop in. I learned how to paddle board, thanks to Claire, and we even were able to successfully surf (small waves) with the two of us on it! This family was wonderful (did I mention that already?), and we got along very well. And the instant they said that they had been to Point Reyes Station, I knew it was meant to be. Marie is French, while Brad is originally from New York, and they had only moved to NZ four years ago. And before that they were living in Seattle. So no, not true kiwis but they still had so much knowledge of this country and the area of the Banks Peninsula. We got to spend Easter morning with them, but they are Jewish, so we didn't celebrate too much, just got to watch the kids hunt for Easter eggs from afar while the rest of us put sheep shit through the shredder (part of the process of making it into fertilizer). Fun. I am going to miss that family and that farm, it was very impressive and inspirational how much they grew themselves (look out mom and dad, when I get home this summer lots of vege and fruit will be planted).

So now here we are, back in Christchurch, at the airport in fact. Time to look back at this trip and smile, because it has been so much fun.

It's true what they say, the majority of the kiwis here are some of the kindest people I have met in my life. They have been so helpful on our travels here. NZ sure does make it easy to travel in with all those i-sites (NZ's official visitors information center, there are over 80 in the entire country). Honestly don't know where we would be without them. So great you could go in and ask almost any question about NZ and they would try their best to answer, questions from the cheapest place to stay, to booking buses and ferries to telling us the best place to get a decent burrito, thanks guys!

I have crossed paths with so many amazing people here in NZ. From other WWOOFers, to our hosts, to roomies in the backpackers, to the people that picked us up hitching (have probably gotten well over 40 hitches by now, and I can most likely remember every single one of them if I tried). I have loved sharing the stories and experiences with everyone. It seems to be a pretty small country over here and we have ended up running into people we've met, more than once. It has been a lovely surprise to see familiar faces again (In fact we are hanging out in the airport with one right now, a roomie from Dunedin).

I am so thankful for the weather we have gotten while being here. With the exception of the couple days it hosed on us, the sun has been shinning bright. There are so many beautiful landscapes here, and I often found myself just starring out at the ocean, the mountains or the lakes for hours.

New Zealand has been a place of firsts for me. I first experienced hitch hiking here. I did my first real backpacking trip, my first time I drove on the other side of the road and my first time seeing a kiwi bird. It was my first time I tried bungy jumping (did I mention that already? Thank you AJ Hackett for inventing that, it definitely won't be the last time I do that) and my first time seeing a glacier.

This has been the longest I have been away from home and oddly I don't miss it too much. I guess that's because exciting NZ has been here to entertain me. I've been looking back but now it is time to look forward.

Time to keep following the sun, Australia is up next. What I have heard about Australia so far: deadly animals, more expensive than NZ (joy), very hot and dry, good beaches, good surf, nice people (but not as nice as the kiwis), and a BIG country. But I don't know what to expect. I guess I'll just have to go down under and see. Until then,

Cheers!

On The Road

It's been almost two weeks now of constantly being on the road. I haven't stayed in the same bed twice, with the exception of Queenstown. Queenstown was fun city. Crazy, but fun. If you haven't already read we went bungy jumping, one of the greatest decisions I have ever made. That night our roomies took us out on a bar crawl. Good times, and I didn't even have to spend over $10. That's what I am talking about. But do not be fooled people, Queenstown is not a cheap town, in fact it is one of the more expensive ones in NZ. Mainly because there is nothing to do unless you are prepared to shell out hundreds of dollars for activities. Hell our bungy was about $260, but so worth it. So just as people told us to do, we got in booked our bungy and then got out.
Next we went to Te-Anau a quite peaceful lakeside town, a good change from the bustle of Queenstown. But again you couldn't see much of the beautiful lakes or Milford Sounds without spending money on a cruise. So we just hung out at the lake, it was good enough for me. From there we found ourselves hitching a ride to Invarcargill, a town I could have enjoyed but we didn't stay long and headed further down to Bluff, the very bottom of the South Island and home to the very famous, Bluff oysters. Another cute quite town. We could see Stewarts Island from there too.
It was good to have some down time to try and beat this tickle in my throat. But it's hard when I want to pack my days full of sightseeing and exploring. From there it was on to Dunedin.
We spent two nights there to re-group, do some laundry and try and find more work. It was raining both days, but we tried hard not to let that stop us from seeing town. On our last day we finally found work. I can't stress how happy we were to hear that she had room for two wwoofers and as soon as the next day. Finally I can work again, I've oddly missed it.
Our last night Claire convinced to me let her teach me how to play pool (convenient because our backpacker was right above a pool hall). We made friends with a guy who turned out to be the son of the guy who owned the bar. That's was nice, free drinks, and free pool. It was a good last night. And then early the next morning we hoped on a bus and headed for Christchurch.
It was a crapy bus ride and there were tons of weirdos on the bus. But I guess that's what you get for a $35 bus ride. It beats six hours of hitching in the rain. From Christchurch we had to hitch another hour and a half to the small town of Little Akaloa, on the banks peninsula.
So now we sit here, waiting for our host to come pick us up. Time to play the guessing game.

Cheers!

Five Seconds of Free-Fall

I did it! I willingly jumped off a 43 meter high (141ft for those of you that don't know meters) bridge today, and survived.

I woke up this morning nervous as hell. I kept trying to tell myself that it was all in my head but I kept thinking about it, and I couldn't stop. After a 20 minute bus ride we got to the Kawarau bridge, the birthplace of bungy jumping. They checked us in, weighed (wrote our weight on our hand...man that's not embarrassing at all, having to walk around with your weight on your hand).
We made our way to the bridge, and I was going first. I stood there staring out at the steep mountains beautiful and serene, I look down, my heart drops a deep turquoise river is gushing 43 meters beneath me. Fuck.
"Alright! Lets get crazy!" It's that guy behind me telling me to jump. Suddenly my mind started to race. It started with small things; I wished it wasn't so cold, I wished they weren't playing sex on fire by the kings of leon, I wished I got a better nights sleep or that I ate a bigger breakfast because my stomach suddenly felt empty (I tried to eat that morning but I was too nervous to get much down), and then I found myself wishing for bigger things, I wished my family were here to see this, I wished my best friend Emah was with me, for the first time in over six weeks I actually missed home, but above all I wished I wasn't so scared to do this.
"3-2-1 bungy" he yelled
"Wait, wait, are you sure this is tight enough?" I said, anything to give me some more time.
"No but we'll find out" he laughed I could feel him tugging on my harness.
Fuck it. Jump!

One Mississippi - my mind is completely blank, I am not thinking anymore. Not thinking about anything. (Finally)
Two Mississippi - I'm falling, just total freefall!
Three Mississippi - My face is cold, and I am still holding on to my harness, let go.
Four Mississippi - hands out I can see the river getting closer, scream!
Five Mississippi - Wait I thought this was a four second freefall jump, fuck! And then I feel it, it's not as painful as it looks. It's a gentle pull on my legs, not my feet. And I start to swing back up.

Now I just hoot and holler because I know I survived. And I loved it.
A yellow boat that was waiting by the shore comes out to get me. One guy reaches for me with what I think was a long piece of PVC pipe. I grab on laughing after missing the first time. The girl holds onto my hands and tells me to look at my feet. I am lowered into the boat.
"How'd you go" they say once I'm in. "again, again, again" I say laughing. And we head for shore. Solid land.
The total jumped lasted probably less than a minute but the impact and memories will stay with me forever. It was the greatest rush I have ever felt. I need to get myself out of Queenstown before I book myself another bungy.

Cheers!

West Coast and St Patricks Day in NZ

Spent the past week making our way down the west coast, staying in hostels and backpackers. First stop was Westport. A small town with not too much to do, but it was nice to be back in civilization after backpacking. Also nice to finally see the ocean after almost five weeks. The next day we hitched down to Punakaiki, a very small costal town, I don't even know if I can consider it a town, it didn't even have a grocery store. There we stayed at the cutest beach hostel right on the water. We saw the famous Pancake rocks, went for lots of hikes around the rivers and along the beach, and we even found some self guided caves. Trying to fit as much as we could into our days we packed up the next morning and headed for Hokitika, the town of jade mining. We got our first hitch from a camper van to Hokitika, it was quite nice. Again we packed our day in Hokitika full of fun and adventure. We went to a farmers market, ate lunch on the beach and I saw my first kiwi bird (the national bird of New Zealand, and very endangered) we got to be about a foot away (ok I'll admit it was in the national kiwi centre, basically a small zoo, but it's really hard to see them in the wild because they are nocturnal not to mention rare). We also saw giant eels (quite scary) and some interesting amphibian that could regrow parts of its brain or heart if needed, I can't remember what the animal was called, oops. At night we went for a hike to see the glow worms. Very cool. Looked like I was starring up at the night sky, only I was really gazing up at a waterfall covered in little sparkling lights. The next morning I woke up to the sound of rain. Damn, the first thing I thought was, crap we have to hitch today. You are probably thinking that hitching in the rain sucks, and let me tell you, it does! When it is wet and windy no one wants to pick up soggy hitchhikers not to mention our soggy cardboard sign that is falling apart. Despite that we got a ride fairly quick from Hokitiki, but our ride wasn't going all the way to Franz Josef (our next stop), so she dropped us at a junction and that was where we have waited the longest for a hitch, nearly 45 minutes before we got a ride. (Not too bad compared to some guys we heard who waited three hours until they got a ride! Thank god we are harmless looking girls.) Once we got to Franz Josef we immediately went to check out the hot pools. Relaxing and hot, just what I needed on that cold rainy day. That night was St. Paddys, so we headed out for happy hour, yay for budget drinking! Our night consisted of green beer, tequila shots, fun cocktails and mixed drink and dancing, lots and lots of dancing. One shot which I cannot remember the name of, consisted of some unknown alcohol and Tabasco sauce. Damn that was nasty. Danced until the wee hours of the night, until the bar closed down and they asked everyone to leave. Got a couple hours of sleep before we woke up early this morning to go for a hike out to Franz Josef Glacier. Hungover as hell, it was still amazing and I made it all the way. This morning we also parted ways with Emah who has begun her journey back up north. I really enjoyed traveling with her and I will miss her a lot. So now our duo is headed to Queenstown, on a six and a half hour bus ride. Going to hopefully catch up on some sleep, seeing as almost everyone on this bus is hungover as well. Joy this is going to be fun.

Cheers!